8 High-Tech Home Improvements that You Can Add to Your Granny Flat

From automated to clever appliances, these are the high-tech devices that you can add to your granny flat.

Today’s renovation projects don’t stop at upgrading the obvious. It’s not enough that you got new floors, windows, joineries, and furniture pieces. If you’re setting up your granny flat for rental, you might want to add some high-tech home improvements too.

According to the US Research company called Gartner, the use of smart home devices will be mainstream in the next four years (in 2021). Smart home tech amenities also appeal to so many renters, particularly to millennials aged roughly between 18 and 35. Millennials have a much greater appreciation for convenience that technology can provide in everyday life.

As a property manager or landlord, you can offer smart technology now to lure renters towards considering your granny flat. You can use it to gain a huge marketing advantage.

From automated to clever appliances, these are the high-tech devices that you can add to your granny flat:

1. Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats and lighting can save you and your renter’s money. With this kind of device, you have a central control panel in the house which allows you to monitor and adjust indoor temperature and lighting when needed. You have total control of the power in the granny flat when it’s vacant. This device can help your tenant program light schedules too, which cuts the costs from their electric bill.

2. Solar Roof

Investing in energy-efficient features like solar panels or solar roof tiles will add value to your granny flat. It will attract lots of renters because there are clear cost-savings for the tenant. Offering something that can lower their electric is extremely important for a renter, considering that cost of rent and power increases year after year.

3. Smart Lock

A smart lock provides stronger home security and helps both landlords and renters prevent intrusions and theft. By heightening security and mitigating one of the biggest rental management challenges, you’re putting your property on top of the rental market. Connect the smart lock to your smart thermostat. This way, the indoor lights the air conditioners will turn on once you enter the house. Link it to your mobile device too. That way, you will know when someone tries to break into your house while you’re away.

4. Cameras

If the renter lives with a kid or a senior citizen, they can have their own standalone security system inside the granny flat. That way, they can keep an eye on their family at home while they’re away. Some cameras even allow them to talk through certain types of cameras using their mobile devices.

5. Automist Systems

A smoke alarm will only warn you if your house is on fire. An Automist system will detect it and put the blaze out. Unlike traditional water sprinklers, this system emits finer mists of water, preventing big water damages once the fire is out.

This fire sprinkler system is designed to be integrated into the home’s design undetected. It has discreet and unobtrusive nozzles which you can install on the wall near the stove or oven. You can have peace of mind for it will automatically suppress uncontrolled fires. It also helps avoid arson. Both landlords and tenants can protect their valuable assets, lives, and property. More importantly, Automist systems meet most of the world’s fire regulations.

6. Boiling water taps

It looks like a regular kitchen tap but this innovation gives you instant boiling water. This enables the busy tenant to blanch vegetables, cook pasta, sterilize stuff, make coffee or tea faster than ever before! Don’t worry, it has a safety mechanism which prevents anyone from burning themselves

7. Built-in Vacuum

Having a built-in vacuum aims to reduce the homeowner’s workload. It’s convenient for tenants because they will never have to lug a vacuum from one area to another or get tangled up in cords.

This convenient home addition starts with a central vacuum power unit fitted in the main garage. It has a powerful motor that sucks all the dirt and dust. Then, you attach the unit to a system of PVC pipes that go into different areas of the main house and the granny flat. These pipes go into a wall and connect to an inlet. Fit the lightweight vacuum hoses here to begin the cleaning the house.

You can have a few vacuum inlets in the granny flat to make cleaning an easier chore.

Don’t worry, the dust and debris removed from the houses are emitted outside so there will be no unpleasant smell or re-circulated dust.

8. Faux grass

For today’s tenants, the outside of a rental property is just as important as the inside. granny flats with access to a polished outdoor space will be more appealing to them. So, invest time and money to get manicured lawns and stunning landscaping. When a real lawn is too high-maintenance for you, consider fake grass. The newest varieties feel softer and look more natural. Their beauty is effortless — you don’t need to sow, mow, and water it to keep it green.

It’s not a bad idea to have one or two of these technological advances in your home. If you spend less a few hundred or thousand dollars on these upgrades, you can often recover that cost within a few years when you ask for higher rents. Also, people are willing to pay more for these convenient, secure, and energy-efficient features.